


A Man Called X

by HappyBee



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Charles has been stuck with the shadow king for awhile, Charles still thinks about Erik, Dark Charles, I can’t help myself, Manipulation, Reflection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-07-29 22:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20089483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyBee/pseuds/HappyBee
Summary: They had been stuck at this game for awhile. Trapped in a hellscape with no one other than a fellow monster to talk to, it’s no surprise that he jumps at his chance to be free once again. Neither player is honest with the stakes and both have their own endgame.





	1. Old Game, New Stakes

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just a lil thing I wrote up to go along with Astonishing X-Men: Life of X because the concept is really cool and I just think it’s neat. I wanted to kinda dive into Xavier’s head a little and explore what his situation has made of him. I’m sure being trapped in the Astral Plane with the Shadow King is not the most pleasant of experiences. I don’t know how well this will read without reading the comic beforehand but I hope it is interesting nonetheless. 
> 
> Basically the situation is that the Shadow King is leading an attack on the world by taking over minds in order to escape the Astral Plane and get back into reality again. Psylocke has sent our above tagged heroes into the Astral Plane to try and put a stop to it from there. But our good pal Charles has already been there for a while after his consciousness was sent there when he died.
> 
> I think we are gonna pretend that the x-men alternate timeline movies also happened before this? I gotta work it out but I definitely think I’ll draw from events from there. Especially for Charles’ previous relationship with Erik. It’s all very timey whimey.

He was tired of this game. They played it everyday, both players almost evenly matched. It reminded him of playing chess with Erik. Back when he was someone else. Back then though, Erik had at least been better company. Farouk had a great mind, but it was twisted and ugly. And the character himself was boring. Not that it made his moves any more predictable, but the man himself was uninteresting. He fought for nothing but himself. His goals were short sided and dull. He had seen them reflected in many men before him. Farouk believed his powers made him worth something, but truth be told, he was just a man, twisted by all the things that corrupts mankind. Nothing new, nothing special, and terrible company. Erik at least had a purpose. He had vision. He missed Erik.

“What game are we playing today?” He asked while trying to pretend he still cared. He felt like he should care. Farouk was playing for his mind. Trying to conquer him as if he was some prize to be won. He supposed once upon a time he might have been. But what was the point now? He was a mind without a body. Trapped in a hell exclusive for telepaths. Even in death he couldn’t catch a break. 

“Oh I think you will like this game.” He tried not to roll his eyes as Farouk continued, “I’ve been working on this one for quite some time now. A chance to have some real stakes.” 

“Stakes?” He raised his eyebrows with real interest this time. Farouk’s grin deepened. This was new. They never had anything of real consequence since everything was always just an extension of their minds. Both just passing the time in this hellscape. But there was something different now he noticed. Farouk seemed to have an edge to him that he didn’t have before. As if he had something invested already. “Well, by all means lay down the rules.”  
  


-x-

They began their game like any other, but this time with a new fire ignited in both of them. He had to admit, it was exciting. To have a real impact again. A touch in the living world. He missed that. He missed that control and the rush of having real consequences. He reached out for the first time in what seemed like eons and was delighted to run across the familiar minds. It was like sinking into a cool lake on a summer day. Oh it was marvelous! Farouk had unwittingly presented him with an opportunity and he was not going to let it go. This feeling, this awakening after being asleep for so long, it was just too good to pass up. He reflected that at one time he might have been content to move on, let the living live on without him. There were many times he believed that the world would have been better off without him. But now? Well damn the world, he craved to be in it again, amongst others, letting his power run free around living, breathing minds. 

Farouk had set their stakes: if Farouk won, he got the X-men, minds, bodies and souls. “And if I win?” He had prompted, curious to see what Farouk would possibly offer that would be of any value. 

“I will grant them a merciful death, minds intact.” He just laughed. He knew that the whole thing was a farce but that didn’t mean that there was nothing to be gained. He was going to play to live. He knew that Farouk was playing for something similar and that he would not fight a clean fight. That was fine. He had played his fair share of clean fights. Time proved that playing dirty was more fun. Farouk would have his tricks and he would have his. He would do anything for his freedom. 

He supposed his old hypocrite of a self would have been disgusted at playing people as if they were pawns, but he had plenty of time to realize that that’s all anybody ever is. Control is an illusion that people come up with to sleep better at night. He was one of the few people to ever have a taste of control actually felt like, and yet in the past, he had always shied away from it. But he would be damned if he let petty ideologies stand in his way now. So when his pieces entered the board, he made his moves without hesitation. 

Maybe he should have felt bad for discarding the other two. It was inevitable though if he wanted his best shot at getting out of here. He needed pawns that were malleable and that could never be Logan. He was too set in his ways, forged by a long life of brutality and death. No, his purpose would serve better as a sacrifice. He was playing for the long haul. Remy was less rigid of course, but still pretty much a static character. A necessary casualty. They would never understand, but they weren’t calling the shots. 

At last the final pieces were in place, the board set with Mystique, Rogue, and Fantomex. Manipulating Fantomex had been all too easy. He almost felt bad. Maybe he really was doing him a favor. It didn’t really matter, but part of him really did hope he found contentment. At any rate he had set all of his final moves into action and it was time to see how the cards fell. He was ready to play his endgame with Farouk thinking he’d already won. He could feel the darkness crawling up him so it was understandable why the creature might have been led to believe that. But he had played appearance to his advantage his whole life and he had an excellent poker face. 

It was no surprise when Farouk finally stood from the table flaunting his assumed victory. “Was there ever any doubt?” The Shadow King has asked with his disgusting grin. 

_ No _ , he mused.  _ You are much too nearsighted to see anything in front of you.  _ Out loud he said, “Probably not Amahl. Not really.” The poor soul was so convinced he’d won. “There are still matters to discuss before we go.” He motioned towards the final pawns. 

“Them?” The creature laughed, turning away. “I don’t need them anymore. You know, as my gift to you for being such a wonderful opponent all this time, I’ll honor our original agreement. You may kill them however you wish. The Shadow King is gracious in victory.” And he began to stride away adding, “you never really had a chance Charles. I had a little something extra this time. Perhaps you noticed?”

“I did,” he conceded. “You seemed… stronger than usual.”

Ever a being to love to hear himself talk and even more, to be listened to, Farouk turned back to his audience and was on him again in an instant. “Yes I know! I found a power source. Just drifting. Long forgotten I think. Dark, confused, sad. Quite wonderful. Turns out it was the key to everything.”

“So you’re saying you cheated.”

“Why yes, I suppose I did. I’m sorry about that, old friend,” He tried not to cringe at the term coming from some  _ thing _ like Farouk. “But you know, all is fair.”

“I would have expected nothing less,” he said finally allowing his face to turn up in a manner that mirrored Farouk’s. He figured the look didn’t flatter him any better considering he was almost positive the dark tendrils had crawled up to his face by now. He saw his hand was completely black from the strain of fighting off the Shadow King for so long. “But please don’t concern yourself.”

And then chaos erupted. It was glorious. His remaining X-men fighting the Shadow King in the Astral Plane, ever shifting, ever changing. Each one not sure of who they are supposed to be, using their fluidity as a weapon. He could feel Farouk’s grip around him lessening as his mind fractured between a battle on two fronts: The one here, and the one in reality. And finally, even after giving up his struggle so long ago, a slight flex of his mind, and he was free. Instead of taking time to revel in his new freedom, he plunged a beam of psionic energy, sharpened like a blade, straight into the creature. The Shadow King fractured, light pouring through the cracks before he dissipated completely. 

“This was never a game, Farouk. Not for me.”

  
  
  
  



	2. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He’s baaaack. Let’s all welcome back Charles Xavier to the land of the living. Also apparently I’m doing multiple POVs now so there’s that I guess.

He was back. 

_ “After all, what do people know about me? Nothing really nice. Murderer, thief, liar - the weapon I was designed to be.” _

There was sunshine. And wind. 

_ “But you do something big enough, good or bad, and it washes away everything else. And this is big. This, they will never forget.” _

He could feel. There were people. Living people. With real thoughts. He could feel them all. It was glorious. Like breathing in fresh air. Something wasn’t quite right with most of the minds he felt, but that could wait.  _ He was back _ . The ground beneath him was real. His hands that pushed him up were real. His legs,  _ his legs,  _ were real. He willed them into motion and they responded. And just like that, he took his first steps of his new life in this impossible world. 

“Oh, god.” Psylocke gasped, turned away from him, looking at something in the streets below. This breathing person was in front of him with tangible thoughts. She didn’t know he was here yet. She was afraid. She thought they were going to die. An understandable concern as most of the city was seemingly still infected with whatever plague the Shadow King had planted. He would fix that. He was back. He would fix everything.

“It’s alright, Elizabeth. Everything will be fine.” Because of course it would be. Everything would be better than fine. He was back, the sun was shining, and the world was real. 

Her fear spiked as she whipped around to face him, weapon drawn. “Fantomex? You’re back? But… I didn’t pull you out. How-”

“Yes. I am back.” He was back. “But I’m not Fantomex.” Who was he? He moved to pull off the suffocating mask.  _ Oh, to breathe.  _ “I’m Charles Xavier.” She knew him. That would be a familiar name. And it had been his name once. He wasn’t the same man though. “But you can call me X.”

-x-

Elizabeth Braddock had been through a lot today. Her mind had been attacked, She had sent her friends to a likely death in the Astral Plane, watched as the city around her became possessed, fought off her other friends while their minds had been hijacked by the shadow king, and now she had just learned that bomb was heading for the city. Seeing the old professor taking over Fantomex’s body shouldn’t have been a surprise at this point.

Betsy thought back to when she knew Xavier. He was stern and stubborn, but he lived and breathed kindness and hope. He was a strong leader, an even better teacher, and had the ability to instill confidence and strength in those around him. Like with all telepaths, she knew that a certain amount of fear followed him simply because of the power he held. She had experienced the strain it could put on relationships. It was hard for people to be completely at ease, knowing that the person before them could know their every thought, or even bend their will against them. Of course that was always against the good professor’s nature, that he would never invade someone like that without good reason, but it didn’t often matter. Just knowing the ability was there was enough– that it was little more than courtesy that kept the Professor out of others’ thoughts. The world was lucky that Charles Xavier was a good man. 

Now looking at the grinning man in front of her, Betsy wondered how much of the Professor’s nature remained. He had  _ died _ . That alone would be enough to change a man, without even giving consideration to where he had just came from. How long had it been for him in the Astral Plane. Time ran different there. And he hadn’t been alone. She didn’t even want to think about all the horrors he faced at the hands of the Shadow King. 

Thankfully the others had woken up and would have her back if this ‘X’ tried anything. Xavier was known to have one of the most powerful minds on earth. And if this man was who he claimed he was, well Betsy was good, but she wasn’t  _ that _ good. She would need support to take him out. She hoped it didn’t come to that. She really did. But she knew how people you trusted could be twisted. She had experienced it herself. As far as she was concerned, she had no idea who this man was and she definitely didn’t know his intentions. And there was no way for her to glean any answers from the other telepath. As if reading her thoughts,– she hoped her shields were strong enough that that wasn’t what he had done– he spoke again. 

“I know what you all are thinking,” he started, taking a step forward. “What am I going to do next? We’ll get there, I promise, but first, I need to thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.” 

Beside her, Rogue spoke up, “Sure, Xavier, you got it, but what the hell did you do?” Betsy tried to find consolation the fact that she wasn’t the only one who was lost, but failed.

“Hey Rogue, call me X, okay? Not sure I want to go with ‘The Esteemed Professor Charles Frances Xavier’ just yet. Doesn’t feel right.” It was hard to tell if she should feel better about that or not. On one hand, The Professor formal and formidable. He was hard to reach and arguably had a bit of a god complex, not that she would ever let him catch her thinking that. He had made several mistakes because of it though. On the other hand, Charles Xavier always had been grounded by his morals. He sought good in everyone, and held faith in humanity even when no one else would. That kept him on the right side of the tracks for the most part. If he was dropping that title,  _ his name _ , was he trying to put his errors of the past behind him, or was he shedding the beliefs that had been associated with that name for so long? “I know you have questions,” he continued, “I’ll answer them in time. The main thing is that I’m back.  _ Reborn _ .” 

Well so much for finding answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven’t read the comics, can you guess who was talking at the first two italic quotes at the beginning? Hopefully That made sense. Are these chapters too short? I feel like they are short. But it makes sense to me to break them up like this so far. Perhaps they will lengthen eventually. I’m not quite sure how the releases of House and Powers of X issues will affect my story, if I will adopt the narrative they are pursuing or not. I hope you forgive me if I go my own direction a lil. I still haven’t decided how far I plan to go with this. Here’s hoping I go anywhere at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Almost all of the dialogue is directly from the original comic because this, as of now, follows the events from the comic. That could change. We will see. Everything else though is my own writing. Please forgive any errors.


End file.
